Background
Robert Rowe Gilruthwas born on October 8, 1913 in Nashwauk, Minnesota, United States. He was a son of Henry Augustus and Frances Marion (Rowe) Gilruth.
Robert Rowe Gilruthwas born on October 8, 1913 in Nashwauk, Minnesota, United States. He was a son of Henry Augustus and Frances Marion (Rowe) Gilruth.
In 1931 Robert Rowe Gilruth graduated from Duluth Central High School. In 1935 he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering at the University of Minnesota and a Master of Science degree in 1936.
In 1958 he was appointed head of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration program which put the first American, John Glenn, into Earth orbit in 1962, and the first men on the Moon in 1969.
He was a member of the Professional Engineering Fraternity Theta Tau,
On April 24, 1937 he married E. Jean Barnhill. In 1972 she died. They had a daughter, Barbara Jean. On July 14, 1973 he married Georgene Hubbard Evans.